1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to aquatic activities and, more particularly, to accessories used for assisting in aquatic activities.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Wave riding is an activity that provides enjoyment for many people around the world. In order to ride waves, a number of sports have been invented to assist people in riding waves toward the shore. Surfing is a common pastime among residents and visitors in coastal areas. Surfing requires a level of skill that has a long learning curve and a substantial investment in equipment that tends to be bulky and increasingly expensive as the performance of the equipment increases. Another manner of wave riding is body surfing. Body surfing does not require the high level of skill of surfing on a surfboard and the equipment is much less expensive. Numerous prior art devices exist that can enhance the body surfing experience. A number of hand boards that currently exist for body surfing are generally buoyant, flat, planar devices. Additionally, a number of devices exist that can be used on the individual hands of the user to provide assistance in swimming but do not provide a high degree of buoyancy.
The Handboard™ marketed by The Hand Board Company in Kailua Hawaii is an example of a flat planar device that tapers towards the front. The Handboard™ provides a limited amount of buoyancy; however, the Handboard™ does not easily attach to the hands of the user and does not provide any assistance in swimming. Moreover, Handboards™ suffer from high costs of manufacturing making them somewhat cost prohibitive.
Other planer devices marketed as the Aloha Board™ or the Hand Cannon™ are individual planer devices with tapering fronts used that are attached with an attachment mechanism to each hand of the user. Each of these devices provides only limited amounts of buoyancy that is limited and these devices are essentially planar devices. These devices also are generally expensive to manufacture making them somewhat cost prohibitive.
Wave Blades® are other currently available planer devices that comprise tapered planer boards with a glove like attachment mechanism for the user's hand. These devices are expensive to construct, requiring sizing of the user's hand and offer only limited amounts of buoyancy. The glove like attachment used on these devices can be difficult to attach to the user and also difficult to remove. Additionally, here are also a number of hard surfaces on these devices which can cause injury to other swimmers in the event of a collision.
Other devices that can be used for body surfing are pod like devices or miniature surf boards. These devices are intended to held with both hands and do not provide individual body surfing devices for each hand. They are larger, more cumbersome devices than the individual hand devices described above and their manufacturing costs are high.
In view of the foregoing discussion there remains a need within the art for a device that provides substantial amounts of buoyancy, assists in swimming and is more economical to manufacture.